Cases

Allason v Random House UK Limited

Facts

Rupert Allason, the former Conservative MP and writer known as Nigel West, brought a copyright infringement action against the publisher Random House UK Limited (“Random House”), claiming that the book it had published by John Cairncross, “The Enigma Spy”, had been ghost-written by Mr. Allason, and that the copyright belonged either to Mr. Allason or his service company, Westintel Research Limited and that it had been published by Random House without a licence. Random House’s case was that the Enigma Spy was written from late 1990 onwards by the late John Cairncross, who was assisted by his wife, Gayle Cairncross. It denied that Mr. Allason was the sole (or even joint) author of the book.

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